


The fox's trap

by NoTomorrow



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Adventure, Challenges, Cole talks a lot, Dalish, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Humour, I won't tell you shit, Inquisitor can't help prying, Lovers for everyone, M/M, Never trust a keeper, Romance, So many Dalish I'm drowning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-29
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 05:35:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6691705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoTomorrow/pseuds/NoTomorrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A dalish clan is never as nice as they seem. Also, they fuck shit up. Badly. Trust me. - Varric Tethras, renowned storyteller.</p>
<p>In which inquisitor Rose brings home two Dalish stragglers only to end up in a far bigger mess than she had ever been in. Romance, dorkiness and broken bones ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Pack your bags

"We're going to...." she spoke in an overly excited tone, stalling for the answer. Varric already knew, which was why he was sitting there as if someone had just shat on one of his manuscripts. "The Fallow Mire!" She cheered loudly. There was a chorus of grunts and grumbles around the table, with Bull trying desperately to blend in with the table and Sera standing up violently, her chair falling backward "No, no, no, no. So not going. You can take care of those... weird things with their shite swamp all by yourself. I'm not going."

"But Sera, there's fun stuff, too! There's... Avvar women!" She cried at her friend. The only thing she got in return was a severely unimpressed look.

"...who would totally be shitting arrows at our faces."

"That's... true."

"Ugh." At that, she ran upstairs, all the while yelling "You can't make me!".

Well. That just left her Bull, Varric, and... hold on. Solas was nowhere to be found, as she'd checked earlier, though she had been finding him gone at rather odd times. She'd have to check up on that later. Maybe Bull had seen something. Dorian had mysteriously disappeared, and she had an inkling as to why. She was sure Varric had told the Tevinter mage.

That left her with Vivienne. Maker, why wasn't anyone of them a mage? She didn't want to take Vivienne. She was all about honour and skill and do stop dallying, dear. She had no sense of adventure in her, aside from the Game. However much she respected the woman for her expertise and skill, she couldn't stand sleeping in the same tent as her. Nine out of ten chances, she'd wake up to Vivienne freezing her to a statue because she snored. And she knew that she'd have to share with Vivienne, as Varric was scared shitless of the woman. Or....

"Bull?" That didn't really come out right. That sounded very pleading.

"Vivienne is out, inquisitor."

That... gave her pause. The Iron Bull smirked at her from his height, knowing all along what had been bothering her. She swore he could see the wheels of another's mind turning.  
She was... at a loss, really. They couldn't go without a mage. They had to go find a mage. Without a healer, they would be dead, especially with the reckless way she fought. She really had to take Bull up on that training offer, sometime. Or Cassandra, really. But she couldn't be bothered at the moment. She did have to go to the Mire, however. Apparently, there was still a rogue apostate out there that needed to be dealt with. If Leliana hadn't pushed her into it, she would've just let the man rot in that swamp in peace. Ugh, she really needed Dorian.

"Bull..." She started again. She knew there was something going on between him and Dorian, surely Bull could convince him to come?

"Search the places with drink, Boss."

-xxxxx-

 _"Everything's soaked, I can barely breathe,_  
_Maker knows what she's doing to me_  
_If she doesn't have some wine to share, I'm sure I'll have to..."_

"Dorian, you're fine, you're not dying, it's just fog."

"Says the person who dragged us here."

"-says the person who doesn't know that the person who dragged you here had been commanded to come here by our lovely resident Nightingale."

He held his tongue then. Everyone knew to keep quiet about Leliana - as much of a wonderful lady she was, she was also pretty ruthless and none of them where risking a dagger to the throat.  
They had also been walking for hours now. It seemed as if the fog was just getting denser... or was that just her? The apostate had been dealt with ages ago, but somehow, they couldn't quite find their way back without stepping in a puddle with several corpses in it, alerting other, walking corpses. In Sera's words: "Those things are bloody shitty wrong, that's what!"

So now, they were out stuck who knows where in the Mire, still trying to find their way along. They couldn't light a fire, because they'd be assaulted by corpes. Couldn't call out, either, or the same thing would happen. She was sick of these things. She was sick of this place.

Even more so when there was a blur darting through the fog next to her.

She saw Bull stiffen up for a slight moment, and then it was gone. He'd have to teach her to control her emotions like that someday, too. Dorian and Varric were still blissfully unaware, walking a ways back from them, as they weren't the ones that had to keep the monsters of them with close combat.

"Boss." He mumbled in a low voice.

"Don't let them know we've noticed."

"I'm sure they already know. See, they're slipping by faster now... if this isn't some weird-ass magic trick."

She didn't know. Had no idea, really. The only people she knew of that could walk practically unseen like that where Cole and Sera. And a few of those bloody irritating rogues they'd encountered in the Hinterlands. She knew it wasn't a magic trick, per se... but then again, she had seen Solas and Vivienne flick in an out of a spot too, so who was she to know?

She held up a hand to signal the party to stop walking.

The longsword that was swung a hair away from her shoulder, she didn't quite expect. She ducked to the side, trying to see where it had come from, but to no avail. When she glanced at her side, towards Bull, she was rewarded with an irritated look, his eyes darting around everywhere to find whoever was out there. Well, they tried, until they heard a very distinct "Lethallan!" in a scolding voice off to her left. The fog was so thick, you could barely see your own hand if you held it out in front of you. As such, they didn't dare try to go towards the voice. Turned out that they didn't even need to. A male figure came striding through the fog, his face barely visible with how far he was still standing from them. He flicked a hand, and the fog around him disappeared. Neat trick, that...

"Who are you, and what is your business with us?" She called. Just in case, she had her fingers on the pommel of her sword, ready to unsheath it at any notice.

The man, now unveiled, stood watching them curiously. He was showing signs of a more mature age, with his hair greying at the temples. He was an elf, and a mage, as was apparent by his previous little magic trick and the staff he held in his left hand. It seemed as if he had to lean on it slightly to keep upright, which was odd, considering he did not seem that old.

The man obviously wanted peace, as he was keeping his free hand in the air and smiling apologetically.

"Peace, stranger. My daughter can be a bit brash at times... as I'm sure you noticed just then." He spared a glance behind him, seemingly trying to convey how displeased he was to the still invisible figure. "You do not seem to be the walking corpses or the apostates we've encountered before you, as my daughter thought you were. Really, the armour should have given it away." There was a humph in the fog behind him. "Honest mistake. A shem is still a shem." came the feminine voice.

The man sighed wearily. "My apologies. I am Zerithan,... previously from clan Lavellan. We mean you no harm."

Dorian perked up at that, as he does. "...previously?" He cocked his head in a very Mabari-like manner. Bull excuded complete calm when he warned him not to pry with a silent "Dorian."

Zerithan held up his hand again. "No harm done," he sighed as he looked at the mud his feet rested in. Maker, how awful it must feel to walk the Mire with only bandages around your feet.

"The Lavellan clan decided to throw us out. It's alright -"

"No it is not!" came the feminine voice from behind him. Presumably, his daughter. She darted forward through the fog to look at him. "You weren't thrown out! I was!"

"It is the same thing, lethallan."

"The hell it is! You're telling them you're an outcast when you are most definitely not. Have you forgotten that you carry a staff, Hahren?" She shouted. As her father looked at her with nothing but sympathy and shame, she sighed and turned to the party. With her arms folded, she surveyed the people before her. She had to admit, she demanded attention with just being there. Her red her coiled in tight braids on her head, her light armour and the knives strapped to her thighs and back told her she was everything but vulnerable. She looked like a hardened combatant. Her expression didn't leave anything to the imagination of what she would do to them, either.

"You know who we are now. Who the fuck are you, then?"

"Larya!"

"What? I'm only asking a question." She huffed, turning her gaze away from the group but keeping them in her sight in her peripheral vision.

Dorian laughed. Out loud. "Well, she sure has quite a mouth on her, doesn't she?" Bull shook his head, as Zerithan sighed and mumbled "That she does."

She took a breath and steeled herself for their possible reaction. According to Larya's belief, they would be able to send word to someone because they had found a wandering apostate. Zerithan was indeed an apostate at the moment, so she was right in her thinking. They could report him. But she wouldn't.

"I'm Rose Payne. This here is the Iron Bull, here's Dorian, and hiding behind him is Varric."

"Rosie, I am really not hiding." She threw him the most unbelieving look she could muster.

"And we're with the inquisition." she continued with a slight nod.

Whatever reaction she hadn't expected, it wasn't this one.

Larya ran towards her, all semblance of wariness and anger dissipated. Her eyes were huge, pupils blown wide with excitement and vigour. "You're the Inquisition?" She practically bounced on the spot. She was throwing her hands around in gesture as she went on with her excitement. If that wasn't called bipolar, Rose really wouldn't know.

"I mean, Nira joined you months ago, and she has been sending such exciting letters! But..." she trailed off, looking slightly confused as she took a step back and looked them over. "I expected...hm...a bit..."

"...less mud?" Rose supplied.

"...better clothing? Because really, I have been trying to convice them to wear something decent for so-"

"No." She cut him off. Probably a bit harsher than Rose had expected. "Less... diversity."

Rose looked around her. Sure, they had Bull, but....oh. For a Dalish, the must look quite the ragtag group, with their Qunari, dwarf, Tevinter mage and herself, a rather short human. Oh. Varric was the one who spoke up, however.

"Sweetcheeks, if that's the thing that displeases you, I'm not sure why you're so excited to see us. We do have quite a thing for collecting all kinds of diversity, thanks to our dear inquisitor, here." He winked at Rose, now standing behind him. True enough, she did collect diversity, in a way. First, there were the mages. She was also able to save a few Templars thanks to Cullen's help, and even one or two Qunari had dribbled in from the Free Marches. She even met a few sentinels a few weeks ago who returned to her previous offer and had decided to stay after all. Unless she sailed for Rivain or Antiva, she wouldn't really get much more diversity than this.

"Not at all. I am just suprised. I didn't expect a shem to accept that many people." And just like that, she looked wary again. Must've picked up on her being the inquisitor. Well, shit. A female noble, human inquisitor. If that didn't put Dalish off...

"Larya. This is no time for insults." Her father spoke up. However, his voice seemed weaker as he said it. Larya had picked up on it too. She whipped her head around to the man behind her. Zerithan looked pale and was leaning rather heavily on his staff. The first to move wasn't Larya, Rose, or Bull, however. It was Dorian.

"Here we are, chatting ourselves to death, without even noticing there's a man actually dying?" He humphed. "and you say I'm the chatty one." He was next to Zarithan at a moment's notice, drawing his arm over his shoulders to help him walk towards the party. Zarithan breathed in a very shallow manner as Dorian tried to examine him with a spell. Internal organs were never really her thing, so she had never asked how that worked. She just had to be stitched up or healed sometimes. Didn't need to know what was happening, exactly.

Dorian's face turned sour.

"He has an infected knife wound. Poison, from the likes of it. I can make the antidote, but we'll have to get to camp." He looked around, looking more worried than he was before. "If we can even find it..."

Larya spoke up. "We can see through this fog. You can't?"

"We know our way, but we've been lost for quite a long time because we can't see."

The woman obviously had a plan. "I'll lead you through it. Tell me what to watch out for, and we'll find one of your camps."

She paused before she added, "...only if you do not report him."

"I wasn't going to."

At that, Larya looked a little shocked. Why would she, when she had already seen what sort of group the inquisition was? Truth be told, however, they still had their fair share of templars. Rose couldn't blame her.  
Larya exchanged her shocked expression with a determined glint in her eyes.

"Right then. Tell us were to go, and I'll lead the way."


	2. Sharing is caring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Skyhold appears and Larya comes clean.

They'd found one of their camps. The Old thoroughfare camp, to be exact. And they had been only minutes away from it. Dorian had looked at her as if she had been the one to cause the fog. Obviously not, but do try to convince him of that when his armour was soiled with mud and water beyond all recognition. Clearly not a very good idea.

As it turned out, they already had the antidote at camp, so making sure the poison left Zarithan's body was really no big deal. Dorian cared for the elf exceptionally well, and by nighttime, Zarithan was already up and walking. Larya had been very quiet throughout the walk and being at camp, so Rose got curious. She was a very fiesty person, it seemed, and Rose had absolutely no doubt in her mind that Sera would have taken a liking to the woman were she actually here and not cowering in her nice, dry, clean room up in Skyhold. That's what you get for not going on the stupid missions. Which, she had to admit, had become rather more exciting since the two elves had joined their company. Honestly, she hated tying up loose ends. She didn't mind loose ends. Only Leliana and Josephine did, apparently...  
Though, this loose end did need solving. She stood up from her spot on a log near the fire to stroll towards the woman sitting outside the tent Zarithan was recovering in. Without a word, she bent down to sit and stretch her legs next to her.

"Do you know Rina? Personally, I mean." Larya spoke, staring straight ahead at the fire several feet away.

Another question she hadn't quite expected. "I do. Though I must say Solas must know her better than I, by now."

Larya smirked. A shit-eating grin covering her face, as she mumbled "Fenhedis, you little liar."

Rose got the gist of it. She didn't have the need to say they weren't involved, however. They seemed to be on very good terms, as she had often found the elven girl sitting on the floor of Solas' rotunda as he painted on above her. He had called her lethallan, however, which was a bit of an endearment, wasn't it? She wasn't sure. Maybe it just meant "equal". It wouldn't surprise her. He didn't really seem the type to get involved, to be very honest.

"She's a friend from the clan, I assume?" She pried. She rather liked getting to know new people. It was a useful trait, being the inquisitor.

Larya stayed silent for a moment, as she seemed to think for an answer. Finally, she raised her head and smiled half-heartedly at Rose.

"She was. Still is, I hope." She sighed, looked down at her feet.

"You hope?"

"She never heard of our... my situation."

The woman was chewing on her bottom lip. Rose stretched out a bit more, then inhaled before she dared ask.

"If you don't mind me asking, what is that situation, exactly? I mean, before I get a ton of Dalish on our heads, I'd like to know why..."

Larya laughed. "Of course that won't happen!" Her laughter turned mirthless after that. "They don't care that much."

Rose frowned. Weren't clans pretty tight? Well. Except for when they threw you out, like they had done to Minaeve. She couldn't imagine what that sort of life would be like. Before she could ask what had happened for them not to care, Larya spoke.

"I got into a few fights. I...," she breathed. Rose let her take that moment, she knew in her heart what was coming, anyway.

"I-I killed a clan member. A month ago." If Larya would bite her lip any more that she already was, she was going to draw some serious blood. Rose didn't get a chance to speak, as it was as if a dam had broken. "There was this... this girl. Couldn't have been more than fifteen. She reminded me of someone." Her eyes glazed over as she kept staring in the flames. "I was out hunting. I was supposed to bring back bigger game, since there was to be a feast tonight. There was some sort of bonding going on. I didn't care and volunteered to go." She still sat there, unmoving, eyes lost in the memory. "I had to go pretty far. The hunting ground for the big game was further than our territory at the time really allowed, so I had to sneak in."

"I didn't find any big game that day. I heard crying in the woods when I'd just planned to return. I knew it was the right thing to do, to go find her, so I did. I did...

"There was a man there. A shem. He was holding her, pushing her to a tree... his hands did not go where they should have."

She went silent. Her eyes went glassy with unshed tears as she continued.

"Another hunter from my clan had decided to accompany me. He had just caught up with me and wanted me to come back with him, since there was no game to be found. He saw what I was looking at. Pulled me down when I stood up to go help. You know what he told me?" She turned to Rose, exasperated, as if she still couldn't believe the man had said whatever he had.

"He said, 'She's from another clan, she should deal with her own problems.' I couldn't believe it. I said I had to go, had to help the girl. She was a person. But he held me down. Hissed that I- that I had to look after my own. 'It's only a girl,' he said. 'This happens all the time,' he said."

She clenched and unclenched her fists. Rose actually felt the anger flow over the girl. She waited. As she did, she glanced around to see Bull and Varric sitting near the fire, but close enough to hear. She knew they had heard. Varric had never been good at hiding his expressions from people. He was a businessman, not a spy. He had hunched over, brows drawn together in a scowl that would make Cassandra proud.

Larya took a breath and continued.

"I shook him off. Told him to go fuck himself. I went over as quietly as I could and tried to stab him. I wanted to feed the man his own guts. I wanted... I wanted him gone. It was like being in a haze. I couldn't think. Couldn't breathe. But my clan member... he- he pulled me away just when the man noticed me. The shem didn't go for me. He went for him. I could hear it, you know. Blade tearing through skin. I heard him fall. Knew he was dead. I couldn't- It wasn't-I-" She had started shaking with emotion. By now, tears rolled off her cheeks to drop in her lap. Rose didn't know... she didn't know what to do. She wasn't good at consoling people. She was good at listening, but not this. Never had been. But she tried, anyway. She pushed the thought of consoling her own sister away, which just seemed so alike to the current situation. "It's okay. What happened to the girl?"

Larya sniffled, but she was angry. She frowned, she seethed. "She was gone. She'd disappeared when I wasn't looking. When I had been killing the shem. I can still feel his blood sliding over my fingers, when I drew the knife away. I'd never killed a person before. And right then, I had suddenly killed two at once."

After that last revelation, she went still. Quiet, waiting, as if she awaited their judgement. Rose had judged many people before in her time as inquisitor (though most of it still went through Josephine and Leliana's handling, since she rather disliked being all high and mighty on that dusty throne of theirs) but this wasn't about judging. This was about Larya feeling guilty about something she did not need to feel guilty for.

Varric walked over and crouched in front of Larya, who scowled at him. "What is it, dwarf? Here to say I should leave?"

"Not by far, Princess. See, I just wanted to know if you realize that that shit you killed had it coming all along. Other clan or not, you did the right thing."

She chuckled, a sad sound. "Not the way they see it, dwarf."

There was shuffling behind them, cloth hitting the floor, footsteps walking steady. Zerithan opened the flap of the tent to stare down at their sitting forms. There wasn't a hint of pity in his face, only remorse.

"Clans have their faults. As did ours."

He walked towards the fire, clearly feeling a lot better, and sat down next to Bull. Strange combination, that.

Rose cleared her throat, making everyone look up at her. She'd never get used to that power over a person's attention.  
However, she did need to speak to them. The elves had to decide now wether they would come to Skyhold with them or stay here. They would be going through the Frostbacks next, so she needed to know.

"Larya, Zerithan, if... if you have nowhere to go, you might join us, you are aware of that, yes?"

Zerithan looked up in shock. "I had not realized it to be that easy to join the inquisition. Is there not a... test, or the like?"

Rose laughed. "If we had to do a test every time someone joined, we'd still consist of only five members, sir."

Zerithan blushed. Actually blushed. "Ah, I'm no sir, my lady."

"Nor am I a lady, sir." She grinned. She got a dazzling smile in return. Quite a fetching smile for a man his age.

Larya rolled her eyes. "Don't you dare, Ha'hren!" He responded only with a mirthful "What?"

She was the one who answered Rose's implicit question. "We've been walking the Mire for a few days and would love to get out of this dump. After that, we...I, well we don't really have any purpose, nowhere to go, as you said. It might be the best to join."

She acted coolly and matter-of-fact, as if she wasn't the one who jumped in joy when she realized they were inquisition.

"You're in." She grinned, slapping her knee before she wiggled her way up to shout at Bull.

"Hey, enough with the dreary stuff, where has the drink gone?" Bull chuckled.

"Right here, Boss!"

———————————————————-

As they trudged up the mountain path, there was something nagging in her mind. She had agreed to let them join the inquisition, but she had no idea what skills they had. The mages had their magic, the soldiers their training, others gained intel,...

What could they do for them, exactly?

Zerithan had been walking a few feet behind her, and Larya had apparently found a friend in Varric, as she walked beside him, with Iron Bull and Dorian making up the rear. Oh, Dorian would love that pun. She sidled up to Zerithan, keeping the same pace with the taller elf. Not that someone had to be tall to be taller than her, since she was smaller than Larya, who was actually just your average elf height, which was short.

"So... have you thought about what you wanted to do, for the inquisition?" She cocked her head to the side.

He pointed his free hand at his staff. "Well, my lady, this basically means I am an apostate. I was one of the clan's elders when I left, which means I've had my fair share of battles. My magic is strong, though I would not dare make any assumptions as to how strong it is compared to your companions. Your mage is quite adept at it." He said as he glanced back at Dorian's chatting figure.

"He should be, really!" She laughed. "Well, that settles that. I assume Larya is no stranger to her knives, as she was a hunter before?"

"No, she is not. She rather likes fighting, actually. It was probably one of the reasons the clan decided to throw her out. She often fought with the First and the Keeper."

Why did that not surprise her? She smiled at the man, still walking along. "She is not the first hothead who joined the inquisition. I'm sure she is not going to be the last."

He grinned and they walked on, making their way to Skyhold.

Well, until they heard a very excited "What?!" behind them. Larya was practically jumping in front of Varric, going mad with glee. "Is it true? Oh, tell me it is!" She giggled, walking forward with a spring in her step. The dwarf winked and bowed slightly for her.

"I have the most reliable of sources."

"No way! I knew there were some weirdly stern people out there,but that's classic. How did she get away?" She listened with rapt attention as Varric spoke in his telltale storyteller voice.

"That's just it! She didn't. She hid up in the rafters so she could look. It made him absolutely mad. When the Commander stood up to walk the battlements - scowling, might I add - She jumped down to remove the piece of paper and rustled his papers on his desk. The commander was sure he'd gone mad."

Larya laughed and pushed at Varric. "No way a person can be that uptight about little things like that. No, I just don't believe it." Varric grinned, taking that as a challenge. "What say you prove me wrong, sweetcheeks?"

Since, strangely, Larya seemed to be a lot like Sera, she agreed. Not the smartest thing, since Rose knew the commander. Varric really wasn't spinning a story, for a change. She was always amused by Sera's pranks, though she wouldn't dare do them herself. She'd rather not be incinerated on the spot by Solas or end up doing the worst missions because she'd pranked Josephine. No, no, she wouldn't take her chances.

"Oh, you're on, dwarf."

Sera was going to be very happy about this new addition to the team.

———————————————————-

"No."

"Inquisitor, we've had sightings, and we have no idea-"

"..how much you're making me want to drown myself right now."

Cullen dragged a gloved hand over his exasperated features. "Rose..."

"Now don't you 'Rose' me, Commander!" She exclaimed, as she walked away from the man, still not quite believing the words he had told them upon arrival.

There was no way a dalish clan was holed up in the wastes, and there was absolutely no way she was going out there to investigate. She still had to get all the grime from her armour, courtesy of the Mire, and she had to get their new recruits settled in. She did not have time to go to some blazing hellhole that made you want to crawl back to the frigid temperatures of the Frostbacks on all fours. She did not.

Ugh. The commander always brought bad news. Well, if all else failed, she could goad Solas into coming so he could put up those fantastic warmth glyphs of his beneath every tent for the night. He might be a bit... much, sometimes, but he really had a lot of useful skills and he rivalled Varric in storytelling.

As she unsaddled her mount and went to get a blanket to cover him, she dared a glance behind her. Dorian and Bull had already gone off somewhere, probably to find their much needed drinks. Varric however was standing next to a dumbstruck Larya, with her whispering to him in her far-too-loud manner that, really, made whispering pretty unnecessary. She could hear every word from her spot, about five paces away.

"You weren't lying." she giggled.

Rose figured this had to do with the way Cullen was staring at her and Zarithan in an alarmed manner, grabbing his papers and resting a hand on the hilt of his sword. Three guesses that he was checking up on their names somewhere.  
Rose put her mount away and wandered back over to the group, now riddled with confusion, most of it on Cullen's end. "You won't find their names, commander, we picked them up in the Mire." Larya bristled at her words.

"Oh no, we totally picked you up." Rose grinned a cheeckily at her.

"So it was teamwork!" Larya rolled her eyes. "Riiight."

Cullen was looking decidedly distraught by that time. He turned over his papers to a passing scout and - still keeping a hand on the hilt of his sword - looked Larya up and down. Funnily enough, Zarithan's presence was lost on the man. Larya blushed to the tips of her ears, looking defiant while doing so.

"I'm not sure the inquisition can hold any more refugees, inquisitor."

She supposed that might as well have been his last words. Larya's eyes went wide and she huffed, rising up to her full height and taking a step towards the commander. He actually tightened his grip on his sword.

"We are not refugees, commander. We can carry our weight." she spoke, with her hands landing on her narrow hips, having to stare up now that she was close enough to Cullen. He stayed silent.

"You want me to prove it to you? Take out that pretty sword of yours and we'll see who ends up on the ground first."

The corners of Cullen's mouth tugged up just the slightest bit, as if he was trying not to smile. "Are you sure, ah... hm...."

"Larya." It was the cockiest tone of voice Rose had ever heard. She was going to enjoy this. Someone needed to get the rise out of Cullen once in a while, if it wasn't Leliana or Josephine. Maker, if he got one more marriage proposal presented to him by Leliana, she was sure he would spontaneously combust on the spot of pure, unbridled anger.

"...Larya. You might regret this." Rose halted. Was Cullen, our pious little commander, actually up to fighting a new recruit? Cullen, of all people? She didn't believe a word.

"Oh, I-" but before she could continue on pestering him in a match, Zarithan interrupted her smoothly.

"Lethallan, I suggest we find a place to clean up before you challenge half of Skyhold." He laughed. Still smiling, he led a sputtering Larya away from Cullen and Rose. She was the one who spoke first. "I'm totally betting on her, you know." She grinned. He shook his head.

"You might want to eat your words, later."

She cackled, "Keep dreaming, Commander!" as she followed behind them, making sure they ended up somewhere safe. Skyhold had seen it's fair share of destruction, and she wasn't sure some ceilings still held. She ran after the pair, still bickering.

———————————————————-

Rose was entirely sure she would end up with the biggest headache in the world, soon. She rubbed her forehead as she stalked away from the war room, going straight for Solas' rotunda. The hissing wastes was officially a go, and now she was tasked with the mission to find out why a dalish clan suddenly decided the hissing wastes was a good place to be. There were still a few rifts open, even tough they had cleared out quite a bit after their first (and only) visit a few months ago. They would be leaving in three days, so that evidently meant she only had three days to drag some companions with her and to sleep and dry up from the Mire. Well, at least her clothes would be dry in the wastes. And dusty. So, horribly dusty. She'd had to clean out sand for two weeks afterwards, after that first trip.

As she predicted, Solas was in his rotunda, drawing on paper. He never drew on paper, he always painted. What was so secret he couldn't show Skyhold? She tried to sneak up behind him, and it worked, but just before she could see what he was so intent on drawing, he slammed the book closed. "Inquisitor." He was smiling, but it was watery, as if it hadn't been the same smile it had been before she entered.

"Solas! I was wondering if you would like to accompany me to the hissing wastes?" She asked in an overly cheerful tone. Wringing her hands together, she looked inquisitively at the man, apparently lost to his toughts in that moment. His eyes were set in the distance, a frown marring his features. She was stumped - Solas was never this... absent. Sure, he had his moments, but this was odd. She waved a hand in front of his face, trying to get him to come back from wherever his mind had gone.

"Solas?"

He started, looking up at her, but the frown remained. "Ah- Excuse me, inquisitor. How long would we be gone? I would not mind, certainly, but I'd like to know."

It was Rose's turn to frown. He never asked how long they were going to be gone for. The only things he did ask were matters concerning the fade, or what sort of ruins they would come by, or if there were any artifacts discovered in the area yet. You know, things he didn't really need an answer to because he likely already knew. Really, no one could fault her for not knowing what to say to that.

"I- uh... Well... As in... three weeks, maybe? It's quite far..." Come on, it's not like she kept track of time. Why should she, anyway? It was the only upside to going to the maker-forsaken outskirts of Thedas - she would probably miss a lot of her social obligations. Meeting every single day in the war room - Cullen might be pretty to look at, but really, a handsome man could only do so much to lessen the strain of all that work -, meeting with nobles and Maker, the marriage proposals. She was going absolutely mad with them, and she reckoned Josephine enjoyed every single bit of it. She swore that woman had a mean streak in her.

"Alright, inquisitor. When do we leave?"

"In three days."

"Oh. That's..." He frowned deeper now. "...soon."

Was it? She really did not know how to deal with this sort of Solas. Where had the real, anxious-to-tell-people-about-the-fade Solas gone and who was this impostor? Before she could add anything, he got up and brusquely walked to the door to the throne room.

People were acting very odd since her arrival. Was it something in the food?

 

**Author's Note:**

> Updates biweekly on Wednesday and Sunday!


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